Self-Publishing Will Always Be My First Love (& Why It Should Be Yours Too) ❤️‍🔥✨

my thoughts on zines, community, & grassroots publishing - welcome back to The Slush Pile!

As Issue 43 of The Slush Pile arrives in your inboxes, I find myself busy with various writing events and workshops as a host, leader, and instructor. While it can be overwhelming at times thinking about the number of things I say yes to, and how I could definitely be doing a better job of taking care of myself, I know that I wouldn’t have this amazing, fulfilling writing life without self-publishing.

Since the invention of the printing press, and maybe even before then, self-publishing has played a significant yet overlooked role in the world of creative writing, storytelling, and information dissemination. Positioned well outside traditional publishing, from established houses to presses, self-publishing has existed as an alternative form of knowledge and story-sharing, for which writers are afforded a sense of total control and autonomy over every aspect of the publication process. At the same time, of course, there’s intrinsically less institutional support for the end product, whether a book or zine or something else, because you don’t have a team of professionals behind you to take care of things like book layout, cover art, marketing, or promotion. There’s pros and cons to both, and every author and writer needs something different.

For me, I’ve always shared my writing through the medium of self-publishing. When I was in high school, I used Amazon to self-publish a book called “The Stories I’ll Tell” for my senior capstone project, which was a collection of novel ideas that included commentary about the creative journey and inspiration behind each novel, character outlines, and a sample with the first chapter. I never ended up writing any of these novels but the point was to show the different ideas for books that I had on my mind, as opposed to writing and publishing a whole novel within the span of a school year (which, I won’t lie, was my first idea).

That was a good lesson for me in learning about book layout, how it isn’t just as simple as pressing “print” on the computer and expecting a fully finished book. There is a good amount of work that goes into standard book binding with glue, sewing, and specific construction of what the book is printed on and how the cover is attached. Even just to print it out and staple it together takes a certain amount of thought that people don’t often understand or appreciate.

Since then, I’ve gone on to self-publish two poetry chapbooks in 2021 and 2022. More recently, I co-edited and self-published a zine anthology with my friend Paula Macena (which is out TODAY and which you can order HERE!!!), sending it to a new printer this time whose work I’m really happy with. All three times, I’ve learned so much about the process: why it’s so important for an editor or even just a friend with an editing eye to check your work before you send it to a printing service, how you can commission photos and artwork to make it something beautiful and an end product you’re proud of, or learn graphic design to do it yourself and do it well. How you can make something amazing without any institutional support behind you whatsoever.

For whatever reason, I think there is this impression that writers self-publish because they don’t want to hear bad feedback or rejection, that traditional publishing just doesn’t understand them, that they’re impulsive and don’t want to wait for a different door to open, or that they’re publishing bad work. But very few times have I found this to be the case. In fact, I would argue that there are more bad books being traditionally published by the industry than there are being self-published, at least in my experience. I definitely think having a professional editor by your side in the traditional publishing world is a bonus no matter what, but the trick is matching the editor to the book, and that doesn’t always pan out if the editor in question doesn't understand you or your work.

I say all this knowing that I’ll be having a book of mine traditionally published in just four months, that it has the professionally designed cover and layout of my dreams. And it gives me so much pride to see the project grow over the past two years, even though it’s taken a significant amount of time to get here. But with this project, the wait is more than worth it.

Still, as I look forward to other projects I have coming down the pipeline, I don’t think I’ll ever stop self-publishing either, even as my career develops, changes, and grows. I guess what I’m trying to say is that self-publishing will always be my first love and I may cross “to the other side” as it were but I think there will always be room in my heart for both.

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notes from the writer’s desk ✍️

• my favorite recently pub’d pieces:

  • “Picture This” is a Fun but Flawed New Rom-Com for Brown Girls, LatinaMedia.Co

  • What’s Your Expo Story?: Sofía Aguilar Edition, Exposition Review (written by the wonderful Kiana Perez Granados!)

• updates:

  • ⭐️AVAILABLE TO ORDER!⭐️ Today’s the day, y’all! LOS ANGELES, the zine anthology I co-edited with my friend and poet Paula Macena is officially out today! Please place your orders here! All proceeds from the zine go towards the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, which supports incarcerated fire crews through scholarships, training, certification, and job acquisition upon release, with the ultimate goal of ending mass incarceration across California. Order today!

  • ⭐️AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER!⭐️ I’m so excited to announce especially to my subscribers that my debut children’s book, Queer Latine Heroes, is now available for preorder!! The book spotlights past and present queer heroes from Latin America and the U.S. and is forthcoming from Jessica Kingsley Publishers on September 18, 2025. Preorder on Amazon or Barnes and Noble!

  • ⭐️UPCOMING EVENTS!⭐️ I have three upcoming events this month, including a stop at Los Recuerdos Book Tour at Junior High LA in Glendale with my dear friend Celeste Gomez; a journaling workshop with the Homestead Museum in City of Industry; and an AWP offsite reading! For a full list of my upcoming events, visit my website here. I hope to see you there!

  • ⭐️WATCH MY TEDXTALK!⭐️ I’m thrilled to share that my TEDx talk, “The Power of Stories in Representing Our World” is now LIVE on YouTube! It would mean the world to me if you could watch, like, comment, and share with your classrooms, group chats, and everyone you know. Thank you for your support! Watch the talk here!

• resources:

  • Looking for book recommendations? Check out my Bookstagram and TikTok to keep up with what I’m reading and loving right now! On TikTok, you’ll also get more snippets of my everyday writing life and lifestyle/fashion content. See you there!

other stories i’m loving 📖

• currently reading:

  • Tías and Primas by Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez

• currently watching:

  • Severance, S1

• currently listening to:

  • “The Air That I Breathe” by The Hollies

all my love,

sofía xx